Hopes for drought’s end fade as California rains vanish [Bloomberg News]
California will reach the halfway point in its
rainy season this weekend. Hopes that the three-year drought will be washed
away are probably already in the past. While December brought heavy rains that
put the state on pace for a normal season, there hasn’t been much precipitation
since then. Since Jan. 1, Sacramento and Fresno have received too little to
measure….Now the forecast calls for a high pressure ridge to form along the
West Coast, bringing sun, mild temperatures and an extended dry spell….As of
Jan. 21, some of the state’s largest reservoirs are ahead of last year’s
levels, according to the California Data Exchange Center’s website….While it
may look optimistic, without rain to sustain them those hopes could fade.
Turlock Irrigation District
braces for another tight water year [Modesto Bee]
The Turlock Irrigation
District could cap water deliveries at about 40 percent of the customary amount
even if the rest of winter brings average rain and snow. The district staff on
Tuesday night provided an initial look at the supply for 2015, which is looking
to be a fourth straight year of drought. “The hydrological situation for 2015
is not shaping up very well for us,” said Tou Her, assistant general manager
for water resources, at a meeting with farmers….“It’s tough,” said Phil Stine,
who grows almonds and walnuts near Waterford and has land in TID and the
Modesto Irrigation District. “It’s almost impossible. We have some backup wells
that we would have to use.”
Opinion: Save
delta salmon: Smelt are red herring in California water wars [San Francisco
Chronicle]
When you hear about water
users south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta complaining about delta
smelt forcing restrictions on water pumping, take it with a grain of salt. A
small group of agribusiness interests in the western San Joaquin Valley and
their congressional representatives blamed the smelt for water shortages in
2014….This is really a fight over salmon and the tens of thousands of jobs the
salmon fishery supports. Easier to blame delta smelt, a dinky fish few know
anything about….One of the major goals of the legislation by San Joaquin Valley
members of Congress that passed at the end of 2014 is to gut protections for
California’s most important and most vulnerable salmon runs — protections
contained in the Endangered Species Act and the Central Valley Project
Improvement Act…So why do our opponents keep talking about smelt? Because they
know that the public won’t support policies designed to shut down the salmon
industry.
New poultry testing rules
tackle salmonella [Wall Street Journal]
The Agriculture Department is
proposing testing standards for chicken and turkey aimed at reducing rates of
salmonella and other bacterial contamination. Rules laid out Wednesday create
first-ever standards for chicken breasts and other parts, and tighten standards
for ground chicken and turkey. The rules, aimed at cutting down rates of
salmonella and campylobacter contamination, are expected to prevent 50,000
illnesses each year, the department said….The proposal follows an outbreak of
salmonella infections in 2013 and 2014 linked to chicken from Foster Farms, a
California poultry producer….The USDA isn’t requiring poultry processors to
take specific steps to reduce contamination in their products. Instead, it is
proposing limits on the number of poultry samples that can test positive for salmonella
and campylobacter before a facility is deemed to have failed the standards.
Scientists work to contain
modified organisms to labs [New York Times]
Could genetically modified
bacteria escape from a laboratory or fermentation tank and cause disease or
ecological destruction? This is not known to have occurred. But two groups of
scientists reported on Wednesday that they had developed a complex technique to
prevent it from happening. The scientists have given a common type of bacterium
a unique genetic code that makes it dependent for survival on unnatural amino
acids that must be fed to it. If such organisms escaped into the wild, where
those amino acids are not available, they would die….The researchers said it
would be more difficult to apply the technique to genetically modified crops.
In some cases, the crops end up growing where they are not wanted or
transmitting their genes to other crops.
Where do tech-savvy
millennials buy wine? Not online, Cal Poly study finds [San Luis Obispo
Tribune]
Millennials, typically defined
as those born between 1982 and the early 2000s, are known for being adept at
using technology, whether it's a smart phone, gaming console or social media.
When it comes to wine purchases, however, this younger generation (those of
legal drinking age) prefers to buy bottles at the grocery store, according to a
wine study published by Cal Poly's wine and viticulture department and the
university's agribusiness department. "The thing that was surprising is
that everyone thinks the millennials will be online," said Marianne
McGarry Wolf, head of the wine and viticulture department and a co-author of
the study. "For them, it's a new experience, and they want to try new wines.
There's also the shipping costs of buying wines, and they tend to be more
cost-conscious."
Ag
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